This page is updated Re. Toben arrest = scrole down
WHAT IS HOLOCAUST DENIAL?

Thursday, August 14, 2008

By Barbara Kulaszka

In recent years, considerable attention has been devoted to the supposed danger of "Holocaust denial." Politicians, newspapers and television warn about the growing influence of those who reject the Holocaust story that some six million European Jews were systematically exterminated during the Second World War, most of them in gas chambers.

In several countries, including Israel, France, Germany and Austria, "Holocaust denial" is against the law, and "deniers" have been punished with stiff fines and prison sentences. Some Jewish community leaders have called for similar measures in North America. In Canada, David Matas, Senior Counsel for the "League for Human Rights" of the Zionist B'nai B'rith organization, says: [1]

“The Holocaust was the murder of six million Jews, including two million children. Holocaust denial is a second murder of those same six million. First their lives were extinguished; then their deaths. A person who denies the Holocaust becomes part of the crime of the Holocaust itself.”

Often overlooked in this controversy is the crucial question: Just what constitutes "Holocaust denial"?

Six Million?

Should someone be considered a "Holocaust denier" because he does not believe – as Matas and many others insist – that six million Jews were killed during World War II? This figure was cited by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1945-1946. It found that "the policy pursued [by the German government] resulted in the killing of six million Jews, of which four million were killed in the extermination institutions." [2]

Yet if that is so, then several of the most prominent Holocaust historians could be regarded as "deniers." Professor Raul Hilberg, author of the standard reference work, The Destruction of the European Jews, does not accept that six million Jews died. He puts the total of deaths (from all causes) at 5.1 million. Gerald Reitlinger, author of The Final Solution, likewise did not accept the six million figure. He estimated the figure of Jewish wartime dead might be as high as 4.6 million, but admitted that this was conjectural due to a lack of reliable information.

Human Soap?

Is someone a "Holocaust denier" if he says that the Nazis did not make soap from the corpses of murdered Jews? After considering the evidence – including an actual bar of soap supplied by the Soviets – the Nuremberg Tribunal declared in its Judgment that "in some instances attempts were made to utilize the fat from the bodies of the victims in the commercial manufacture of soap." [3]

In 1990, though, Israel's official Yad Vashem Holocaust center “rewrote history" by admitting that the soap story was not true. "Historians have concluded that soap was not made from human fat. When so many people deny the Holocaust ever happened, why give them something to use against the truth?," said Yad Vashem official Shmuel Krakowski. [4]

Wannsee Conference?

Is someone a "Holocaust denier" if he does not accept that the January 1942 "Wannsee conference" of German bureaucrats was held to set or coordinate a program of systematic mass murder of Europe's Jews? If so, Israeli Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer must be wrong – and a "Holocaust denier" – because he declared: "The public still repeats, time after time, the silly story that at Wannsee the extermination of the Jews was arrived at." In Bauer's opinion, Wannsee was a meeting but "hardly a conference" and "little of what was said there was executed in detail." [5]

Extermination Policy?

Is someone a "Holocaust denier" if he says that there was no order by Hitler to exterminate Europe's Jews? There was a time when the answer would have been yes. Holocaust historian Raul Hilberg, for example, wrote in the 1961 edition of his study, The Destruction of the European Jews, that there were two Hitler orders for the destruction of Europe's Jews: the first given in the spring of 1941, and the second shortly thereafter. But Hilberg removed mention of any such order from the revised, three-volume edition of his book published in 1985. [6] As Holocaust historian Christopher Browning has noted: [7]

“In the new edition, all references in the text to a Hitler decision or Hitler order for the `Final Solution’ have been systematically excised. Buried at the bottom of a single footnote stands the solitary reference: `Chronology and circumstances point to a Hitler decision before the summer ended.’ In the new edition, decisions were not made and orders were not given.”

A lack of hard evidence for an extermination order by Hitler has contributed to a controversy that divides Holocaust historians into "intentionalists" and "functionalists." The former contend that there was a premeditated extermination policy ordered by Hitler, while the latter hold that Germany's wartime "final solution" Jewish policy evolved at lower levels in response to circumstances. But the crucial point here is this: notwithstanding the capture of literally tons of German documents after the war, no one can point to documentary evidence of a wartime extermination order, plan or program. This was admitted by Professor Hilberg during his testimony in the 1985 trial in Toronto of German-Canadian publisher Ernst Zündel. [8]

Auschwitz

So just what constitutes "Holocaust denial"? Surely a claim that most Auschwitz inmates died from disease and not systematic extermination in gas chambers would be "denial." But perhaps not. Jewish historian Arno J. Mayer, a Princeton University professor, wrote in his 1988 study Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?: The 'Final Solution' in History: “…From 1942 to 1945, certainly at Auschwitz , but probably overall, more Jews were killed by so-called 'natural' causes than by 'unnatural' ones." [9]

Even estimates of the number of people who died at Auschwitz – allegedly the main extermination center – are no longer clear cut. At the postwar Nuremberg Tribunal, the Allies charged that the Germans exterminated four million people at Auschwitz. [10] Until 1990, a memorial plaque at Auschwitz read: "Four Million People Suffered and Died Here at the Hands of the Nazi Murderers Between the Years 1940 and 1945." [11]

Is it "Holocaust denial" to dispute these four million deaths? Not today. In July 1990, the Polish government's Auschwitz State Museum, along with Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust center, conceded that the four million figure was a gross exaggeration, and references to it were accordingly removed from the Auschwitz monument. Israeli and Polish officials announced a tentative revised toll of 1.1 million Auschwitz dead. [12] In 1993, French Holocaust researcher Jean-Claude Pressac, in a much-discussed book about Auschwitz, estimated that altogether about 775,000 died there during the war years. [13]

Professor Mayer acknowledges that the question of how many really died in Auschwitz remains open. In Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? he wrote: [14}

“… Many questions remain open ... All in all, how many bodies were cremated in Auschwitz? How many died there all told? What was the national, religious, and ethnic breakdown in this commonwealth of victims? How many of them were condemned to die a 'natural' death and how many were deliberately slaughtered? And what was the proportion of Jews among those murdered in cold blood among these gassed? We have simply no answers to these questions at this time.”

Gas Chambers

What about denying the existence of extermination "gas chambers"? Here too, Mayer makes a startling statement: “Sources for the study of the gas chambers are at once rare and unreliable." While Mayer believes that such chambers did exist at Auschwitz, he points out that “most of what is known is based on the depositions of Nazi officials and executioners at postwar trials and on the memory of survivors and bystanders. This testimony must be screened carefully, since it can be influenced by subjective factors of great complexity.” [15}

Höss Testimony

One example of this might be the testimony of Rudolf Höss, an SS officer who served as commandant of Auschwitz. In its Judgment, the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal quoted at length from his testimony to support its findings of extermination. [16]

It is now well established that Höss’ crucial testimony, as well as his so-called "confession" – which was also cited by the Nuremberg Tribunal – are not only false, but were obtained by beating the former commandant nearly to death. [17] Höss' wife and children were also threatened with death and deportation to Siberia. In his statement – which would not be admissible today in any United States court of law – Höss claimed the existence of an extermination camp called "Wolzek." In fact, no such camp ever existed. He further claimed that during the time that he was commandant of Auschwitz, two and a half million people were exterminated there, and that a further half million died of disease. [18] Today no reputable historian upholds these figures. Höss was obviously willing to say anything, sign anything and do anything to stop the torture, and to try to save himself and his family.

Forensic Investigations

In his 1988 book, Professor Mayer calls for "excavations at the killing sites and in their immediate environs" to determine more about the gas chambers. In fact, such forensic studies have been made. The first was conducted in 1988 by American execution equipment consultant, Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. He carried out an on-site forensic examination of the alleged gas chambers at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek to determine if they could have been used to kill people as claimed. After a careful study of the alleged killing facilities, Leuchter concluded that the sites were not used, and could not have been used, as homicidal gas chambers. Furthermore, an analysis of samples taken by Leuchter from the walls and floors of the alleged gas chambers showed either no or minuscule traces of cyanide compound, from the active ingredient of Zyklon B, the pesticide allegedly used to murder Jews at Auschwitz. [19]

A confidential forensic examination (and subsequent report) commissioned by the Auschwitz State Museum and conducted by Institute of Forensic Research in Krakow has confirmed Leuchter's finding that minimal or no traces of cyanide compound can be found in the sites alleged to have been gas chambers. [20]

The significance of this is evident when the results of the forensic examination of the alleged homicidal gas chambers are compared with the results of the examination of the Auschwitz disinfestation facilities, where Zyklon B was used to delouse mattresses and clothing. Whereas no or only trace amounts of cyanide were found in the alleged homicidal gas chambers, massive traces of cyanide were found in the walls and floor in the camp's disinfestation delousing chambers.

Another forensic study was carried out by German chemist Germar Rudolf. On the basis of his on-site examination and analysis of samples, the certified chemist and doctoral candidate concluded: "For chemical-technical reasons, the claimed mass gassings with hydrocyanic acid in the alleged 'gas chambers' in Auschwitz did not take place ... The supposed facilities for mass killing in Auschwitz and Birkenau were not suitable for this purpose..." [21]

There is also the study of Austrian engineer Walter Lüftl, a respected expert witness in numerous court cases, and former president of Austria's professional association of engineers. In a 1992 report he called the alleged mass extermination of Jews in gas chambers "technically impossible." [22]

Discredited Perspective

So just what constitutes "Holocaust denial"? Those who support criminal persecution of "Holocaust deniers" seem to be still living in the world of 1946 where the Allied officials of the Nuremberg Tribunal have just pronounced their verdict. But the Tribunal's findings can no longer be assumed to be valid. Because it relied so heavily on such untrustworthy evidence as the Höss testimony, some of its most critical findings are now discredited.

For purposes of their own, powerful special interest groups desperately seek to keep substantive discussion of the Holocaust story taboo. One of the ways they do this is by purposely mischaracterizing revisionist scholars as "deniers." But the truth can't be suppressed forever: There is a very real and growing controversy about what actually happened to Europe's Jews during World War II.

Let this issue be settled as all great historical controversies are resolved: through free inquiry and open debate in our journals, newspapers and classrooms.

Notes

1. The Globe and Mail (Toronto), Jan. 22, 1992.

2. Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal (IMT "blue series"), Vol. 22, p. 496.

3. IMT "blue series," Vol. 22, p. 496.

4. The Globe and Mail (Toronto), April 25, 1990; See also: M. Weber, "Jewish Soap," The Journal of Historical Review, Summer 1991.

5. The Canadian Jewish News (Toronto), Jan. 30, 1992, p. 8.

6. See: Barbara Kulaszka, ed., Did Six Million Really Die: Report of the Evidence in the Canadian 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel (Toronto: Samisdat, 1992), pp. 192, 300, 349.

7. C. Browning, "The Revised Hilberg," Simon Wiesenthal Annual, Vol. 3, 1986, p. 294; B. Kulaszka, ed., Did Six Million Really Die (1992), p. 117.

8. B. Kulaszka, ed., Did Six Million Really Die (1992), pp. 24-25.

9. A. Mayer, Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?: The 'Final Solution' in History (Pantheon, 1988), p. 365.

10. Nuremberg document 008-USSR, in IMT "blue series," Vol. 39, pp. 241, 261.

11. B. Kulaszka, ed., Did Six Million Really Die (1992), p. 441.

12. Y. Bauer, "Fighting the Distortions," The Jerusalem Post (Israel), Sept. 22, 1989; “Auschwitz Deaths Reduced to a Million," The Daily Telegraph (London), July 17, 1990; " Poland Reduces Auschwitz Death Toll Estimate to 1 Million," The Washington Times, July 17, 1990.

13. J.-C. Pressac, Les Crémetoires d'Auschwitz: La machinerie du meurtre de masse (Paris: CNRS, 1993), p. 148. See also: R. Faurisson, "Jean-Claude Pressac's New Auschwitz Book," The Journal of Historical Review, Jan.-Feb. 1994, p. 24.

14. A. Mayer, Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? (1988), p. 366.

15. A. Mayer, Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? (1988), pp. 362-363.

16. IMT "blue series," Vol. 1, pp. 251-252; Nuremberg document 3868-PS, in IMT "blue series," Vol. 33, pp. 275-279.

17. Rupert Butler, Legions of Death (England: 1983), pp. 235-237.

18. See: R. Faurisson, "How the British Obtained the Confession of Rudolf Höss," The Journal of Historical Review, Winter 1986-87, pp. 389-403.

19. See, for example: B. Kulaszka, ed., Did Six Million Really Die (1992), pp. 469-502. See also: M. Weber, “Fred Leuchter: Courageous Defender of Historical Truth,” The Journal of Historical Review, Winter 1992-93, pp. 421-428
( http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v12/v12p421_Weber.html )

20. “An Official Polish Report on the Auschwitz 'Gas Chambers’,” The Journal of Historical Review, Summer 1991, pp. 207-216.

21. G. Rudolf, Gutachten ueber die Bildung und Nachweisbarkeit von Cyanidverbindungen in den 'Gaskammern' von Auschwitz (London: 1993) ( http://www.vho.org/D/rga/ ); The Rudolf Report (in English) ( http://www.vho.org/GB/Books/trr/ )

22. "The 'Lüftl Report'," The Journal of Historical Review, Winter 1992-93.

This essay is adapted from a text first published in 1992 by the Canadian Free Speech League.

About the Author:
Barbara Kulaszka is a Canadian lawyer who practices law in Brighton, Ontario. She is best known for her work in free speech cases. During the 1988 “Holocaust trial” in Toronto, she served a co-counsel (with Doug Christie) for defendant Ernst Zundel. In 1999 she was awarded the “George Orwell Award” by the Canadian Free Speech League.
curtmaynardsblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/from-fr...

ZGram - Update on the political kidnapping of Dr. Fredrick Toben on British soil

There is no doubt that the global struggle for Truth in History is now accelerating public awareness with the arrest of an Australian citizen of German descent in an airplane at Heathrow.  This was again a desperate act to contain the ever more unraveling Holocaust swindle.

Guess what?  Grossmann, the eager beaver Mannheim prosecutor who helped to mastermind the Zundel kidnapping, as documents reveal, requested this arrest!

These impact persecution attempts are meant to strike terror in the public - but boomerang to an astonishing degree.  Millions of people all over the world are drawn to Revisionist websites to find out for themselves what these bizarre arrests of Holocaust Revisionists are really all about.  Toben's website is at http://www.adelaideinstitute.org/ and is one of the Internet's oldest websites, under attack by organized Jewry almost since its inception.

The Toben case is different only from the Zundel kidnapping in that the Holocaust Lobby's claws have come out and the fig leaf has been dropped that this was anything but yet another political hit as punishment for questioning the Holocaust.  The arrest was made while Toben was in transit, flying from the United States to Dubai with a stopover in London, where government law enforcement officers obliged the Holocaust aficionados and acted as a hit squad on a peaceful but politically incorrect non-British citizen for a "speech crime".

I don't have high-speed internet access, therefore I may not be fully informed.  I am not even sure this ZGram will get through, because once again there has been Zundelsite sabotage - by now a common occurrence.  But I will tell you what I know.

In the EU, most countries have stringent "Holocaust Denial" laws where the slightest doubt expressed about the orthodox Holocaust tale gets people prosecuted and, in many cases, convicted to long prison sentences.  Germany and Austria are the most notorious and brutal - in Germany, for instance, even attorneys are thrown in jail who dare to defend the accused.

However England, to its credit, has courageously resisted a "Holocaust denial" law so far - therefore, a political arrest of this nature on British soil of a non-citizen in transit has particularly nasty odor.

This will get interesting.  England has a couple of high-profile celebrity Revisionists who are taking an active role in challenging what happened.  I have been told that David Irving, England's enfant terrible, has offered Toben a place to stay in his home, should he be released on bail, and Lady Michelle Renouf, that elegant and beautiful socialite, a well-known producer of DVDs of Revisionists'

dramatic stories of political victimization, is capably putting together a legal team to launch an extradition advocacy defense.

An EXTRADITION ADVOCACY DEFENSE - let that melt on your tongue!

This is revolutionary!  This should have been done with other high profile cases of Revisionist truth tellers who have been likewise politically nabbed and who idealistically and perhaps too trustingly relied on a "Truth is a defense" strategy - only to find out that the judiciary is so corrupt through fear or blinded by political correctness that it is stony ground to hope for justice  based on forensic science.

Lady Renouf's update is at http://www.jailingopinions.com/toben.html .

David Irving's website is at http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/index.html

and carries additional articles and commentary.

A particularly peppery commentary by Michael James has been parked at the Truthseeker at http://thetruthseeker.co.uk/columnist.asp?ID=25

Additionally, there is youtube with offerings as follows:

from the US:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zthm30XFNKo

from England:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0xiPCUXDTU

in front of Westminster Magistrate's court with Lady Michèle Renouf, Kevin Lowry-Mullis (Töben's solicitor) and David Irving http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai9BYrbhJ9Q

from Australia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP6TpTBP09c

from Malaysia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=karuZF5m0rA

We hope that other countries will take notice and join in.  This political kidnapping, just like the Zundel and Rudolf kidnappings a few years ago, highlights yet once again that Germany is nothing but a bully Zionist vassal, forcing its odious Holocaust Denial laws on other countries that want nothing to do with their hateful laws to please the Noisy Lobby.

It will be interesting to learn if Britain is still strong and independent enough to resist.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Re: Sylvia Stolz, German Lawyer of Ernst Zundel Sentenced To 3-1/2 Years internationalwhiteflight Forum Member  
All we can do is support this woman and Mr. Zundel in their quest for the truth. When they are released from prison they must stand their ground.

Sylvia Stolz's Court statements

http://www.iamthewitness.com/doc/Sylvia.Stolzs.Last.Words.in.Court.htm

Sylvia Stolz, lawyer on trial for Holocaust Denial, accuses court of Talmudic Inquisition

German Patriot Defence Lawyer Sylvia Stolz was sentenced to 3 and-a-half years in prison and disbarred for 5 years.

Below Sylvia's comments to the court.

She says the Court is perverting and repressing the truth with the cudgel of "Holocaust," making a mockery of justice. Her trial has made clear the criminal absurdity of prosecuting "Holocaust Denial." How can one deny something that never existed? She says these entire proceedings began as a show trial in a kangaroo court and never progressed beyond that point. The main proceedings were projected with smoke and mirrors and the official fairy tale of "Holocaust" was enforced by undisguised force. She observes that the political intent of the Court is the ultimate eradication of the German Nation and its replacement by a mongrelized and deculturated population of mindless consumers.

Sylvia says she is confident that she has succeeded in exposing this Court to the whole world as an agent that is hostile to the German Nation. By openly and flagrantly violating the law, this Court flees before the truth. Incessantly, like turning a prayer wheel, it has rejected her every evidentiary motion with the cynical pretext of "abuse of courtprocedure." ..... She has hope and faith that the German Nation will someday bring this treacherous Court to justice.

Sylvia describes how the Defense was forced to accept the contents of the indictment, and this caused the Court's desired verdict to be the inevitable consequence. In the absence of material evidence, the Court relied on its infantile rulings that "Abuse of Procedure = Criminal Act." Thanks to this judicial sleight of hand, there was no assumption of innocence and the Court did not have to prove guilt.

Sylvia asks: to what is Grossmann referring when he mentions "domestic and foreign" court verdicts? Could he be referring to the Nuremberg show trials? The Allied Military Tribunal was nothing but a postwar Talmudic Inquisition conducted by Germany's enemies. It featured witnesses with "built-in credibility" and Jewish testimony that could never be questioned or authenticated. She asks: what would people like Grossmann do without the official obligatory fairy tale of "Holocaust?" Her trial has again demonstrated that world political powers are players in the "Holocaust" game (or "Holocaust Industry" as Prof. Norman Finkelstein calls it, he should know, since both of his parents were interned at Auschwitz during the War.) This explains why objective historical research is still suppressed, sixty-three years after the end of the War. As an example of ongoing intellectual repression in Germany Sylvia refers to the "Hermann Case" in which a popular commentator was fired for referring to such positive aspects of National Socialism as its family policy and the construction of Autobahns.

Sylvia demonstrates that the Court's procedural system is very, very simple. It consists of disallowing all evidentiary motions as "abuse of Court procedure," which is a criminal act. She says that the District Attorney's closing tirade was beneath all legal criticism, nothing but purest slander and abuse.....Then Sylvia shows how powerful interests profit greatly by inculcating a negative self-image into German society, with their incessant propaganda and brainwashing. If Germans were as evil as Grossmann depicts them, they would long ago have skinned him alive.

She points out that under the present Talmudic Inquisition, anyone who calls attention to the destructive nature of Judaism can be punished.

Glenz tells the Court Reporter to write that remark down as well. Sylvia observes that today, no one is allowed to say anything the least bit derogatory about Jews, and yet the necessary first step toward changing and improving conditions in Germany is recognizing the cause of our malaise. She says that Horst Mahler's writings provide the proof for this, and she will stand by this assertion. Glenz orders the Reporter:

"Put that in too!"

Sylvia continues and remarks that Germany now stands under the yoke of world Judaism. Glenz threatens: "We are going to cut off your final address if..." But Sylvia ignores him and says that following World War II, the real criminals took over the world. Glenz growls "I'm warning you!" but Sylvia again urges the public to consider the causes of Germany's plight and continue gathering and considering the material evidence. She tells the Court that National Socialism is not dead, regardless of how much Grossmann and his ilk wish it were dead. She says that National Socialism represents what is good and enduring in the German spirit. Idealism and patriotism are rigidly suppressed at this time but they cannot be suppressed forever.

Turning toward Grossmann and the Court, she asks:

"Is he German? Or is he perhaps related to that Moshe Grossmann who for four years following the end of World War II continued torturing and murdering German slaves in the East, as the Jewish author John Sack reports in his book An Eye for an Eye?"

Then she turns to the Bench and asks:

"What about you — are you Germans?" "German" stands for honor and steadfastness! Think of Deutsche Treue! Nobody can call what is going on in this court as "honorable." In this court, the only "justice" is inspired by the Talmud!"

Sylvia expresses her faith that history will take its inevitable course and "the truth will win out." She says that since the trial began she has been prepared for her preordained conviction — she told them at the beginning that she knew her verdict was handed down, even before her indictment. To the Bench she says,     "And you, my high-and-mighty judges, will never again experience inner peace... Your depiction of National Socialism as a criminal system will see to that. You are willing accomplices to the brainwashing and degradation of the German people.... Adolf Hitler accurately recognized the Jewish problem, the malevolent power of the Jews in certain respects... Yes, I share the values of National Socialism!"

Sylvia continbues:

"If my actions bring a little more light into this dark hour for Germany, then I will gladly go to prison! It does not bother me that I am officially ridiculed and insulted by this despicable court and atrocious government... My high and mighty judges, you are convicting yourselves, not me."

Source: http://twincities.indymedia.org/newswire/display/32751/index.php